NW briefs: Johnson helps U.S. crew win

BRANDENBURG, Germany — Mercer Island's Jesse Johnson helped the United States' men's eight-oared crew to its first championship since 1992 at the FISA World Junior Rowing Championships yesterday.

The U.S. crew led at every 500-meter split and pulled away in the last quarter of the 2,000-meter race for a 1.67-second victory over Germany.

The U.S. won in 5 minutes, 58.08 seconds. Germany held off Romania for second place.

Johnson, a Mercer Island High School graduate, rows for Seattle's Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center.

In the women's eight final, Sammamish High junior Jennifer Cromwell, Snohomish junior Erin Knox and Garfield graduate Annie Gayman just missed a medal, placing fourth.

In the women's pair final, Eastlake High graduate Kari Stenbakken and Desiree Burns of Poughkeepsie , N.Y., placed fifth. In the women's four race, high-school juniors Adrienne Mecham of Lake Stevens and Sara Gribler of Marysville-Pilchuck placed sixth.

Ex-Husky named U.S. team captain

HELSINKI, Finland — Aretha (Hill) Thurmond, a former University of Washington thrower, was named captain of the United States women's track-and-field squad Friday night in a vote of Team USA members competing at the IAAF world championships.

Thurmond, a Renton athlete who married thrower Reedus Thurmond in April, is a two-time Olympian. She won national discus championships in 2003 and 2004.

The world championships continue through Aug. 14.

Defending champs reach tennis finals

Defending champions Story Tweedie-Yates of Redmond and Michael Kogan of New Orleans, the top women's and men's seeds, respectively, advanced to today's finals of the Washington State Open with semifinal victories.

The finals are at 10 a.m. today at Seattle Tennis Club.

Tweedie-Yates, who played for the Overlake School and Stanford University, defeated fifth-seeded Momei Qu of Portland 6-1, 6-2. Tweedie-Yates will face No. 2 seed Ashley Joelson of Austin, Texas, for the women's title.

Kogan handled unseeded Ashwin Kumar of St. Joseph, Mo., 7-6, 6-1 to return to the championship match. Kogan will face second-seeded Oren Motevassel of Fountain Valley, Calif., in the men's final.

Friends of Hoop team ranked ninth

The Friends of Hoop AAU boys basketball team of Seattle-area high-school players finished ninth in the final national rankings. The Spiece Heat team from Indianapolis is No. 1, according to the Web site www.basketballbeat.com.

Friends of Hoop finished its season by playing seven games in 30 hours in Las Vegas.

Coached by Jim Marsh, the Seattle team won the Vision Sports Main Event Tournament for the second straight year, beating the DC Blue Devils 78-61.

Friends of Hoop then played a team from Fresno, Calif., which had won the Adidas Super 64 tournament. The showdown was called the Las Vegas Prep Basketball Showcase and was on national cable television. The Fresno team won 81-70 despite a 35-point, 11-rebound performance by Seattle Prep senior Spencer Hawes.

The Fresno team was slightly fresher — it had played six games in 36 hours.

Notes

• Marysville lost 4-2 to Gilroy, Calif., in the semifinals of the Little League girls softball Western Region tournament in Vancouver. Pendleton, Ore., beat Crescenta Valley, Calif., 11-1 in the other semifinal. Marysville will play Crescenta Valley at 11 a.m. today for third place.

• The Little League baseball team from Chehalis beat Billings, Mont., 13-1 in its Western Regional tournament opener for 11- and 12-year-olds in San Bernardino, Calif. Other first-day winners were Chandler, Ariz., and Tracy, Calif.